Theresa Loong and Laura Nova met at the counter at Shopsin's, a truly original restaurant with one-of-a-kind philosopher/chef. They started talking about digital media, food, and art. Their collaboration is the Feed Me a Story project.
“Feed Me a Story” www.vimeo.com/feedmeastory collects stories from a food cart and encourages the sharing of secret family recipes in a documentary style video cookbook. Using the cart as a vehicle to cross cultural boundaries, we focus on the sensorial memories that are held as sacred in family, food and community. By answering questions like “What is your favorite childhood food?,” “What was the first recipe you learned to cook?” and “What food is important to your cultural experience?” the project extends the concept of what it means to be an American by collecting immigrant stories and incorporating cultural history and contemporary influences.
The performances collect stories from the public through a standard issue airline refreshment cart that maneuvers through New York City cultural institutions, market places, private residences and mass transit. Offering refreshment in exchange for recipes and stories, the encounters are recorded and later shared.
Feed Me a Story provides an accessible platform for spontaneous moments of remembrance about important foods, dishes and food traditions. It gives people from all walks of life the tools to share stories enabling easy entry to greater social and cultural issues. It motivates participation in civic media. In a cultural moment of food obsession - be it rapt following of Top Chef or powerful critiques of our food system or cries of concern about obesity - our project grounds such preoccupations in everyday life.